The new technology for the manufacture of steel takes place in "mini-mills".
Mini-mills make steel by melting scrap metal in small electric arc furnaces, avoiding the expensive process of making pig iron and reducing the number of manufacturing steps.
Instead sheet steel is made in a single production run, emerging from a caster only two inches thick.
The thin slab is then passed on rollers through a furnace to make the temperature across its width consistent.
It next goes to rolling mills to become coils of hot rolled sheet steel.
Nucor Company in Crawfordville, Indiana was the first to pioneer the new technology and became the only major steel company to show a profit in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Sales have been rising annually.
Nucor is a non-unionized plant, using fewer people in production, supervisory and administrative positions than traditional plants.
Nucor was able to open another plant in Hickman, Arkansas and has been looking at cooperative ventures in Great Britain and Europe.
Japan is looking into a similar manufacturing model.
Mini-mills may not be as economically viable in Europe due to high costs of electricity and scrap iron.
U.S. Steel and other companies are considering opening mini-mills giving Nucor plenty of competition.
In the early stages of manufacturing, there were several quality flaws in the steel limiting the uses of the product.
For instance, the steel was not suitable for automobile exteriors.
Problems of cracking and bubbling of the steel have mainly been solved.
